How to crop/split recordings in Ableton Live.

Here’s the fastest way to crop small portions of a longer recording, for instance after recording a bunch of record samples in one long recording session.

– Make sure your recording is in arrangement view.

– Double click on the file to show it in clip view below.

– Make sure warping is off:

– Open the track view:

– Turn off the grid (Command-4)
– Listen for the part you want and select it.

– Command-E to split the file.

– Command-R to rename it (this is important – the new file you will make will have this name.

– Command-J to consolidate the audio file. This creates a new audio file in your “Current project” which you can find in Live’s browser:

Now navigate to the “Consolidate” folder in your set:

You can also right (control) click on the file to show it in your finder:

Another technique is to select the area you want in Live’s clip view, and right click to “Crop” — this has some further advantages, in that it leaves warp markers intact. But the consolidate technique is a bit faster for me.